Earl playing Russian Pyramid billiards

That game looks stupid. Other than the ultra tight pockets I see nothing about it that is appealing. You can choose to use any ball as the cue ball and shoot any other ball at any time. Caroming a ball in is a point, making a ball is a point, scratching behind a ball is two points.

Obviously there is some skill needed but not much in the way of strategy. Although I could see some safety battles happening.

And Earl......wearing a sweater with the bowtie around his bare neck????

If Earl had had the javelin then it would have been all over for the Russian kid :-)

At one point Earl runs 9 points and he celebrates like he just won the World Championships. He signals "9" to the opponent and the opponent is like "great......." and then jumps up and runs 7 from the break.

It is great to see Earl making some great shots on that table though. I can see how this game would produce some really great shot makers.
 
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nice find, what's the story behind this?

it's titled as a World Championship in Moscow?

and a real nice looking table but it's a 10 not 12, is that the new standard for Russian Pyramids?
 
JB Cases said:
And Earl......wearing a sweater with the bowtie around his bare neck????
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I noticed that too John.. That was the most entertaining part of the video.. Pretty sure I would not enjoy that game..
 
Nice find although that was fairly painful to even skip through quickly lol. Those pockets seem to be 3" max. The exposed ball return tracks on that table are interesting too.
 
Even if the pockets are tight this is the easiest pocket game. Evgeny Stalev said that too, pool is a much more complex game. This is the proof pool players are as accurate as pyramid players, and bigger pockets don't mean automatically less precision or skill
 
Earls ferrule looked like he let a little kid borrow his cue. LOL

I was thinking how bad Earl would BBQ the guy playing pool then I remembered Stalev. I'll never forget that guy playing like god with what looked like a fishing rod.

Anyone know if there are any pyramid tables in the US ?
 
JCIN said:
Earls ferrule looked like he let a little kid borrow his cue. LOL

I was thinking how bad Earl would BBQ the guy playing pool then I remembered Stalev. I'll never forget that guy playing like god with what looked like a fishing rod.

Anyone know if there are any pyramid tables in the US ?
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Stalev was/is a great player but he played a lot of pool back then even before he came in America.
 
John Barton, you are wrong about scoring system. Or I didn't get the way you put it. Anyway, there is no way to score two points, other than making two balls at once. Any pocketed ball in this type of Russian Pyramid scores one point, they play first to 8 (obviously since there are only 16 balls on the table). There are other Pyramid games, which are played with cue ball only. In one you are allowed to make "in-offs" (caroms to the pocket), other looks much like pool (pocket object balls only).

That match was held during a Pyramid World Championship in Moscow, I think it was back in 2005. At the same time there was an exhibition challenge match 3x3 (3 Russian pool players vs Bustamante, Souquet and Strickland). All three pool stars got wild cards to play Pyramid, Souquet advanced further than other two. Earl lost to the player in this video, very strong local Pyramid player. Django beat some player from Afghanistan, lost later. Ralf won a match or two after losing to a player from Belarus in a hill-hill game.
Provided it was an official tournament (WC), no the table is not a 10-footer, it is 12 ft.

Justin, there are some Russian tables in the States, mostly in areas where Russian emigrated to. New York or Jersey are some of what I heard.

And yes this game is not that hard, a skilled pool player can master it in a year. It requires some special skills and knowledge, but once you know it and have a straight stroke, you can play it.
Earl running out was great, we who came there to watch pool challenge were rooting for pool players and it was great and funny. You can see his opponent laughing also. But Earl felt awkward at that table and the game, no doubt.
 
JCIN said:
Earls ferrule looked like he let a little kid borrow his cue. LOL

I was thinking how bad Earl would BBQ the guy playing pool then I remembered Stalev. I'll never forget that guy playing like god with what looked like a fishing rod.

Anyone know if there are any pyramid tables in the US ?
Click to expand...

Justin:

They're all over NYC, concentrated in Brooklyn (Brighton Beach area, especially, but then again, that *is* the "Little Russia" of the U.S.). They are the 12-footers, too. (I say this, because I've never seen a 10-foot Russian Pyramid table.)

Those that are not used to seeing a cue sports player carom the cue ball into an object ball to pocket the cue ball as a point, may think Russian Pyramid is "stupid" or "strange." But this goes to show their "newbie-ness" to the cue sports. Remember that Russian Pyramid was designed to include the best of all cue sports: huge table with tight pocket clearances inherited from snooker; pockets with chiseled (not curved) entrances inherited from pool; carom-the-cue-ball-into-a-pocket-for-points inherited from English Billiards; and just plain dead-eye-dick pocketing inherited from all pocket billiard sports.

I think Earl actually did very well, considering the extreme difficulty of this game. Those that knock it have NEVER tried it, I guarantee you that. It's not as easy to do those caroms into the pockets, when you have only 2mm on either side of the ball. Notice also on the slo-mo that the caroms do not conform to the standard 30/90 rule -- they were putting top-spin on the "cue ball" and you can see the cue ball "grab" and hook into the pocket immediately after the carom. What surprised the f*ck out of me, was that Earl was SOFTLY caroming the ball, instead of the Pyramid-standard of slamming the ball to bend the pocket points out of the way. That's how exact Earl was. And if any of you understand Russian, you'll know that the commentators recognized this. I can tell you this -- the commentator was layering praise on Earl for both his pocketing accuracy on this table, as well as Earl's fun attitude.

And it was obvious he was having *fun*. Let's be honest here -- when was the last time you saw Earl actually having *fun* playing a cue sport, instead of lasering-in on "issues" (e.g. someone in the audience, the ref, his opponent, etc.)? It's nice to see Earl like this.

-Sean
 
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JCIN said:
Earls ferrule looked like he let a little kid borrow his cue. LOL

I was thinking how bad Earl would BBQ the guy playing pool then I remembered Stalev. I'll never forget that guy playing like god with what looked like a fishing rod.

Anyone know if there are any pyramid tables in the US ?
Click to expand...

There's a place in Brooklyn down McDonald ave about a mile or two from Skyline Billiards called Pyramida. I know they have these tables in there and that there are some fairly good players there too.
 
Chicago...

JCIN said:
Earls ferrule looked like he let a little kid borrow his cue. LOL

I was thinking how bad Earl would BBQ the guy playing pool then I remembered Stalev. I'll never forget that guy playing like god with what looked like a fishing rod.

Anyone know if there are any pyramid tables in the US ?
Click to expand...

A friend of mine restores tables... he said that a customer bought a pyramid table from a company in Chicago and he was told that it was a Russian Snooker table, then he gets it and it's pyramid. So if ya want one, maybe you can buy it used but new from Randy Burke's customer who really wanted snooker. Randy works at Orner Billiards in Indy....
 
JCIN said:
Earls ferrule looked like he let a little kid borrow his cue. LOL

I was thinking how bad Earl would BBQ the guy playing pool then I remembered Stalev. I'll never forget that guy playing like god with what looked like a fishing rod.

Anyone know if there are any pyramid tables in the US ?
Click to expand...


yes they have,I heard.In new york where there is concentration of Russian immigrants.

:cool:
 
sfleinen said:
Justin:

They're all over NYC, concentrated in Brooklyn (Brighton Beach area, especially, but then again, that *is* the "Little Russia" of the U.S.). They are the 12-footers, too. (I say this, because I've never seen a 10-foot Russian Pyramid table.)

Those that are not used to seeing a cue sports player carom the cue ball into an object ball to pocket the cue ball as a point, may think Russian Pyramid is "stupid" or "strange." But this goes to show their "newbie-ness" to the cue sports. Remember that Russian Pyramid was designed to include the best of all cue sports: huge table with tight pocket clearances inherited from snooker; pockets with chiseled (not curved) entrances inherited from pool; carom-the-cue-ball-into-a-pocket-for-points inherited from English Billiards; and just plain dead-eye-dick pocketing inherited from all pocket billiard sports.

I think Earl actually did very well, considering the extreme difficulty of this game. Those that knock it have NEVER tried it, I guarantee you that. It's not as easy to do those caroms into the pockets, when you have only 2mm on either side of the ball. Notice also on the slo-mo that the caroms do not conform to the standard 30/90 rule -- they were putting top-spin on the "cue ball" and you can see the cue ball "grab" and hook into the pocket immediately after the carom. What surprised the f*ck out of me, was that Earl was SOFTLY caroming the ball, instead of the Pyramid-standard of slamming the ball to bend the pocket points out of the way. That's how exact Earl was. And if any of you understand Russian, you'll know that the commentators recognized this. I can tell you this -- the commentator was layering praise on Earl for both his pocketing accuracy on this table, as well as Earl's fun attitude.

And it was obvious he was having *fun*. Let's be honest here -- when was the last time you saw Earl actually having *fun* playing a cue sport, instead of lasering-in on "issues" (e.g. someone in the audience, the ref, his opponent, etc.)? It's nice to see Earl like this.

-Sean
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hi
i don't like this game not because it looks "stupid" or "strange" but because this is not a very various game. The tightness of the pockets reduce the complexity of the game. You can't make a ball down the rail, safety part is very marginal because of the pockets, there is no kicking, let alone banks and others part of the game. The very big balls means controlling them is very very tough and most of the time you don't play position. I remember Stalev propose to reduce the dimension of the balls to make them more controllable. Also this game has no finesse, don't consider Strickland who is unexperienced, but look the regular pyramid players, for 90% they shoot hard in the pocket to cheat it and to increase the size of the pockets. The only difficoult part of this game is making the ball other than that it is very easy and you can master it pretty "quickly".
 
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Earl seemed to be at ease in this match and enjoying himself while he was getting spanked.
 
That game looks like it was invented during a heavy night of vodka consumption.
 
sfleinen said:
Justin:

They're all over NYC, concentrated in Brooklyn (Brighton Beach area, especially, but then again, that *is* the "Little Russia" of the U.S.). They are the 12-footers, too. (I say this, because I've never seen a 10-foot Russian Pyramid table.)

Those that are not used to seeing a cue sports player carom the cue ball into an object ball to pocket the cue ball as a point, may think Russian Pyramid is "stupid" or "strange." But this goes to show their "newbie-ness" to the cue sports. Remember that Russian Pyramid was designed to include the best of all cue sports: huge table with tight pocket clearances inherited from snooker; pockets with chiseled (not curved) entrances inherited from pool; carom-the-cue-ball-into-a-pocket-for-points inherited from English Billiards; and just plain dead-eye-dick pocketing inherited from all pocket billiard sports.

I think Earl actually did very well, considering the extreme difficulty of this game. Those that knock it have NEVER tried it, I guarantee you that. It's not as easy to do those caroms into the pockets, when you have only 2mm on either side of the ball. Notice also on the slo-mo that the caroms do not conform to the standard 30/90 rule -- they were putting top-spin on the "cue ball" and you can see the cue ball "grab" and hook into the pocket immediately after the carom. What surprised the f*ck out of me, was that Earl was SOFTLY caroming the ball, instead of the Pyramid-standard of slamming the ball to bend the pocket points out of the way. That's how exact Earl was. And if any of you understand Russian, you'll know that the commentators recognized this. I can tell you this -- the commentator was layering praise on Earl for both his pocketing accuracy on this table, as well as Earl's fun attitude.

And it was obvious he was having *fun*. Let's be honest here -- when was the last time you saw Earl actually having *fun* playing a cue sport, instead of lasering-in on "issues" (e.g. someone in the audience, the ref, his opponent, etc.)? It's nice to see Earl like this.

-Sean
Click to expand...


"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to sfleinen again."

Aaron
 
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